


falling in slow motion

by ah_choo (klarkson)



Series: falling in slow motion [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Enemies to Friends, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 09:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klarkson/pseuds/ah_choo
Summary: jihoon gets stuck in an elevator with a boy he hates.





	falling in slow motion

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the shitty elevators in the dorm i lived in for 3 yrs (it's a miracle i got stuck there only once lmao and only for a short time)

What’s worse than being stuck in an elevator when you’re claustrophobic and the emergency button is broken?

For Lee Jihoon, it is being stuck in an elevator when being claustrophobic, with broken emergency button, _and_ _your arch_ _enemy_ _._

Okay, maybe the “arch enemy” is too much, but really, truly doesn’t like that annoying kid from the 17th floor. And it seems like the feelings are mutual.

“Why doesn’t it work!” He groans in frustration while hitting the bell button again and again.

“The instruction says you have to hold it for five seconds.”

Jihoon turns around to look at Kim Mingyu, leaning on the wall of the elevator with a calm expression, pointing to the sticker directly above it.

“Do you think I can’t fucking read?”

Mingyu just shrugs, which makes Jihoon only press the button more furiously.

“Aren’t you like, worried or something?” Jihoon asks after a while, turning around to face the taller again. He still looks indifferent.

“The elevators in this dorm break so often I’m sure they know how to handle this. Why are you panicking so much?”

Jihoon feels the tips of his ears reddening.

“I’m not panicking!” He says definitely too quickly, his voice definitely too strained to sound like a calm person. Mingyu looks at him with doubt in his eyes.

“Sure.” He lazily takes out his phone out of his pocket. “No signal,” he says after a few seconds of checking something. Jihoon rolls his eyes.

“No shit, Sherlock.”

Mingyu opens his mouth but soon closes it without saying anything. Jihoon presses the bell button once again, holding it for definitely more than five seconds, but it still doesn’t work. He gives up with a sigh and leans his back on the cool wall of the elevator. He avoids looking at Mingyu, but the silence and tension between them don’t help him. The air seems to get more and more stuffy, and it gets harder to breathe. Jihoon tries to calm himself down by taking deeper breaths and fanning his hot face with his hand, but it doesn’t help much. He repeats _don’t panic!_ in his head like a mantra, but it doesn’t help either. And it’s getting worse.

“Are you okay?” Mingyu asks, and when Jihoon looks up at him, he actually looks worried. For some reason, it makes Jihoon angry.

“Shut up, of course I am,” he responds. He’s getting sick of that guy. Why, out of the hundreds of people living in their dorm, he has to be stuck with him?

“Are you usually this rude or is this exclusive for me?” The worry on Mingyu’s face gets replaced by anger.

“What?” Jihoon frowns.

“You’re always glaring at me in the hallway. Did I ever do something to you?”

Jihoon shrugs.

“You and your friends. Always so loud. I’m living directly above you and let me tell you, it’s so annoying to hear all your conversations.”

“Oh, so that’s the reason you’re always glaring at me? Couldn’t you just say so? Also, this is a _dorm_. We can’t be the only ones having fun here.”

He has a point, they’re not. But for some reason, it’s more annoying to Jihoon when it’s Mingyu.

“But you’re the most annoying out of everyone,” he says anyway. Mingyu sighs deeply and rolls his eyes.

“I really have no idea what your problem is. Judging me without even knowing me? That’s kind of… low, isn’t it?

Jihoon wants to say something to it but suddenly the elevator kind of shakes and the lights flicker, and the fear and panic he somehow managed to forget about while arguing hit him back.

“What was that?” He asks, backing up so he can lean his back on the wall again. He splays his hands holding to it, as if it was any help.

“Maybe they're trying to fix it?” Mingyu suggests, not fazed by it at all, traces of anger still visible on his face. For a few seconds nothing happens, but it doesn't help Jihoon, because his mind is spiraling back into overthinking.

The elevator shakes again, and Jihoon slides down on the wall to crouch, because it feels like he would faint anytime. Ah, fuck.

“You are not alright,” Mingyu states more than asks, and Jihoon gives up on a snarky remark because it's too much to think about now.

He keeps looking at the floor, and he sees Mingyu's feet shuffling closer before he crouches in front of him.

The elevator shakes once again.

"Are we going to fall?" Jihoon asks, his voice strained.

"No, we're not," Mingyu replies with a chuckle, which makes Jihoon want to strangle him, but when he looks up at him, he doesn't look like he's making fun of Jihoon.

The elevator shakes for the last time, and with a groan like sound, it starts finally going down. Relief mixes with worry, because the feeling is different than normally. Mingyu stands up to look at the small monitor showing the number of the floor they're on, and then he looks at the slit between the doors. Jihoon focuses on it too. The light shining slightly through it should be interrupted once in a few seconds with darkness as they pass by the floor, but it happens much, much slower than it should.

“I guess we’re going down veeery slowly,” Mingyu says with a sigh.

Jihoon gets up, holding onto the wall as his head is spinning slightly, and pushes some random buttons before he even looks up at the monitor. The number on it says _13_ , but he has already pushed that button, and it passes the floor without stopping.

“Fuck,” he says under his breath and leans his forehead on the wall beside the buttons. “We’re basically falling down, but in slow motion.”

The comment makes Mingyu giggle, and Jihoon turns around to glare at him. He’s not sure how to feel, because _something_ has finally happened, but they’re still trapped in this elevator, and the air is still too thick to breathe comfortably.

“I can try to distract you if you want,” Mingyu says.

“How?” Jihoon crosses his arms on his chest.

“I can argue with you again.” He shrugs with a smirk. “Or tell you some stories about me and my _annoying_ friends.”

Jihoon rolls his eyes but he nods anyway. Mingyu takes it as a cue for the second one.

“So, me, my roommate Seokmin and our hyung Soonyoung took our new friend from China, Minghao, for a trip to some small village by the sea, because we heard it’s got some super tasty traditional food,” Mingyu starts. “But when we arrived there, Soonyoung hyung thought it would be very funny if we pulled a prank on Hao, since he still was new here at that time.” He rolls his eyes. “Anyway, he and Seokmin convinced him they pay in abalones in that village. Can you believe it? Hyung even talked to some shop and restaurant workers so they would help them.”

Jihoon scoffs, but there’s a small smile forming on his lips.

“He believed them?”

“Yeah, poor boy.” Mingyu chuckles. “When he finally realized, he was so angry at us, I really got afraid he’s not gonna talk with us anymore.”

“I mean, that wouldn’t be surprising, you know,” Jihoon notices.

“I know, I know,” Mingyu rubs the back of his neck. “But we apologized to him and took him for lunch and he finally forgave us. But he doesn’t trust Soonyoung hyung and Seokmin anymore,” he adds with a laugh. Jihoon smiles too, but he glances nervously at the monitor. _6_.

“Oh, and there was this time Soonyoung hyung was almost arrested for having a frog,” Mingyu says quickly.

“A frog?”

“Yeah, one night he found a frog in front of our dorm and he decided to adopt it-”

“We’re not allowed to have any pets here,” Jihoon interrupts.

“Exactly!” Mingyu exclaims. “But the worst part is, when they finally caught him after a month or so, it turned out it’s some kind of very rare frog from some another continent, and it’s illegal to have it without a special license in Korea.

Jihoon laughs openly this time.

“So they arrested him?”

“Almost,” Mingyu points out. “They asked around when he said he just found it and didn’t know what this is, and it turned out it escaped from the lab in our university. They were even thankful to him for taking care of it.”

Jihoon shakes his head.

“Does your hyung always have this kind of adventures?”

“Sometimes,” Mingyu laughs.

“I’d like to meet him one day.”

“I mean, you can-” Mingyu stops mid-sentence because the elevator arrives at the -1 level, where the laundry rooms are, and the doors finally open. Jihoon walks out so quickly he trips over his own feet, and it’s only thanks to Mingyu’s quick reflexes and strong arms that he doesn’t fall face first on the floor.

“Thanks,” he says when he’s finally regained his balance. “Also for helping me there,” he nods his head in the direction of the elevator. “And, uh. Sorry.” He doesn’t look at Mingyu when he’s saying that. He takes out his phone and checks time “Yeah, I’ll be going now, I’m already late for class.” Jihoon glances at Mingyu, not knowing what to do now.

“See you around I guess?”

“Yeah,” Jihoon nods and runs up the stairs, while Mingyu makes his way up slowly. When he finally goes outside and breathes the fresh air, he feels himself get calmer.

The tips of his ears are still red though.

  


  


 

(When he sees Mingyu next time in the dorm, the taller smiles at him and waves, and Jihoon nods in acknowledgment, not glaring at him this time.

“Seokmin has brought his PS4 from home and we’re having a game night this Friday, wanna join us?” Mingyu asks him.

He shrugs.

“Yeah, why not.”

“Cool, the room number is 242. Bring some snacks!”

“Mhm.” He nods.

He still doesn’t know what to think about this sudden friendliness that appeared between them despite his initial rudeness, but he’s going to go with a flow, and see what happens next.)


End file.
